By Ruairi O’Connor
About 4,000 runners took part in the annual Leicester Marathon this Sunday despite being plagued by torrential rain.
The marathon was a huge success, with many runners, supporters and volunteers braving the elements to make it the great day that it was.
The weather did not dampen anyone’s spirit as smiles were kept glued to the faces of everyone involved.
The tracksuit worn by a Leicester marathon runner before it got drenched by the rain.One of the competitors was 20-year-old Charlotte Byrne, who completed the half marathon in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society.
“When I woke up, I saw it was bucketing down and I’d be lying if I didn’t think about staying in bed,” she said.
“Then I thought about all the people that donated to my fundraising page and everyone I’d let down – including myself – if I did not run.”
The route itself started at the University of Leicester and travelled all the way up, past the National Space Centre, towards the Leicester Western Bypass, before looping all the way back around to the start again.
“It was definitely a tough course for me,” said Miss Byrne.
“I had not run on a lot of the roads the organisers chose so I didn’t really know what to expect.”
Miss Byrne was running for the Alzheimer’s Society as her grandfather has recently been diagnosed with the illness.
“It has impacted my family a huge amount.
“My granddad’s living at home with us now and it has really taken its toll on my mother’s ability to work as she works from home.
“The illness is only in the early stages right now, but even my little brother (10) has started to notice some changes in his memory, so the deterioration is happening quite quickly,” she said.
She also said that it was really heart-warming to see a huge number of Alzheimer’s Society (AS) running jerseys on the marathon route.
“It was incredible to see so many people raising money for AS as it means an incredible amount to not only me, but 1000s of families across the country.”
